Long Road
by Aerilon452
Summary: Mulan is keeping watch at night when someone unexpected comes along. ONE SHOT. COMPLETE.


Summary: Mulan is on guard when someone unexpected shows up.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of OUAT

Rating: K

**LONG ROAD:**

Mulan was on guard while Aurora and Phillip slept. She kept her senses tuned to the night, the trees at their back, and to beach in front of them. Her mind wandered even as she was to be on guard duty, thoughts of Shang bombarded her. He had been her commander, someone she held affection for, but he had rebuffed her. That stung. The rejection still festered inside of her inspiring anger and thoughts of pain now when her mind conjured images of Shang. Guilt stricken, Mulan looked towards another she could never claim. Phillip slept curled with Aurora. Why did she do this to herself? Why couldn't she be content with being the hero she had been before being rejected by Shang? Battle was her calling and she had to embrace that. Looking away from her sleeping companions, she rose from the stump and made a round of their camp. Mulan had to stay on guard. She had just walked past a sand dune when someone grabbed her from behind. Before she could even react she was on her back, and a hand was over her mouth. A very masculine body was pressed to her. Midnight black eyes looked into her. "Shang!" Mulan shouted from behind his hand.

"Stop fighting me!" Shang shouted close to her face. Mulan as struggling, fighting him like the spirited warrior she had been in training. Yet, given her enthusiasm, he could still best her. "Settle down and I'll let you go." He bargained. From the moment he had spurned her advances he had kicked himself repeatedly for ever letting her go. It was what had compelled him to come and find her, to repair what damage he had done to them. The army was gone, the land left to ogre's and somehow Shang had survived it all without knowing what had happened. The journey, her trail, had been fraught with dangers. His one enduring thought had been her. "I'm sorry I turned you away." He said finally, sincerity ringing in his voice and filling his eyes. "Please, Mulan, let me show you how sorry I am." He thought his whispered words would please her, warm her heart, but instead he saw fire light her eyes with anger. Shang knew he was in for a fight with her. Mulan twisted under him, shoved him back until he fell against the dune, and she was on top of him with a knife to his throat. "I deserve this." He choked out careful not to speak to fast.

"Damnit Shang!" Mulan raged careful to keep her voice down lest she wake Aurora and Phillip. "What are you doing here?! I could have killed you!" She continued her anger quickly fading. After all of these years, she still cared about him. He wasn't fighting her. His body had gone still under her while he waited to see what she would do next. Mulan withdrew the knife, replacing it in the sheath hidden in her left boot. She remained on top of him though. Until she could trust that he wasn't going to haul her away, she was going to stay right where she was. "Why are you here?" Mulan inquired, glancing quickly away from him to check to make sure Phillip and Aurora were undisturbed. They slept on. 'Royalty.' Mulan thought with a shake of her head. Then she turned her attention back to her former commander.

Shang took a deep breath before he spoke, "I came looking for you, to make things right between us." She was still straddling his waist, but he had a little freedom to lever himself up to lean back on his forearms. "Ten minutes after you left my tent that night I knew I made a mistake, but when I went to find you, you were already gone. I spent every night since then looking for you." Then, Shang gave voice to words that he had been choking on for years, "I was wrong to let you go."

"And yet, Shang, you still did." Mulan seethed. She gave into her anger and pushed him roughly back into the sand where she then punched him in the chest. "You have a long way to go to make things right between us."

"I know." Shang didn't give in to the urge to cough as his lungs screamed from the burning sensation of the air. Mulan had a right to her anger and he would endure any beating she dealt to him. It was his punishment for spurning her. "But let me try." He gasped failing in his attempt to not cough. This cough wasn't from the punch Mulan had dealt him. It was from a wound he had forgotten he carried. This time when he breathed in, Shang wheezed. In her eyes, he saw concern. "It's nothing." Shang assured her.

"No, it's not." Mulan said. "Out here, a small scratch can turn infected if not treated." She moved from him, stood, and offered him a hand up. Mulan tried not to notice the way Shang's hair fell around his face in long ink black strands. She had forgotten how long it actually was. It framed his face perfectly. Leading him back to the camp, she got him to sit down. "Take your armor off while I get fresh water and bandages." Mulan tried not to listen as she walked away to the sound of Shang removing the armor of his station. He was a Commander, the son of a General. She had been a woman disguised as a man. That alone was punishable by death.

Shang pulled the heavy shoulder armor of his head, then let the breastplate fall to the sand next to him. The white shirt he wore beneath was painting crimson with his blood. He pulled free the ties holding the shirt to his body and it too fell to the sand. When Mulan turned back to him, he saw a hitch in her breath as her eyes fell to his chest. There was a shallow stab wound, fresh and oozing blood, but that was not what had caught her eyes. It had to be the dozen or so other scars that marred his torso. Scars he had earned in battle after battle in his quest to find his heart; Mulan. She knelt in front of him and with shaking hands started to clean the blood from him.

Mulan tried not to notice the other scars on Shang. Some were deep and had been poorly tended. When last they had seen each other he had been perfectly molded muscle, gleaming in sweat from training. Now, he looked to be like any other veteran; too many scars. "This may sting a little." She muttered touching the cloth to the edge of his wound. With most of the blood cleared, she could see the wound was mostly superficial, but had the color of beginning infection. "I'm going to make a poultice that should stop the infection from spreading and heal the wound with barely a scar." Mulan informed him. Before she could move away, Shang cupped her face in his hands and smiled at her.

Shang dropped his hands to hold the wet cloth to his still bleeding wound so Mulan could move away from him. He had to reign in his desire to touch her, to reassure her that she wasn't going to leave her this time; that he wasn't going to push her away. He had to take small steps. This was going to be a long road, but one worth the journey. He had found her right now that was all that mattered. Shang waited for her to return finally feeling the fatigue of the day's events catching up with him. In the blink of an eye Mulan was back in front of him with a poultice that would aide in recovery from his wound. His hand fell away letting her continue the work he had started. Gently the poultice touched his wound and the medicine stung. The herbs and roots mixed together would mingle in the wound stopping the infection and help heal the wound. "Thank you." Shang muttered barely able to talk through his exhaustion.

Mulan gave him a small smile, "I can't leave you to suffer, as much as you may deserve it." She held the poultice in place as she moved to her knees, which put her body closer to his. For a split second she took her hands from his chest and grabbed the fresh bandages that she would need to keep the wound clean. Slowly, so as not to cause Shang more pain, she held the edge of the bandage over the medicine and began to wrap it around his chest. 'His chest has lost some of its muscle.' She noted and tried not to feel just how lean Shang had become. Come the morning they would have to find food. A good meal would also help speed his recovery. With the bandage in place, she went back to her saddle bag and removed a clean shirt. It had belonged to Shang hen they had still been in training. Back when her feeling had been just forming for him, she had snuck into his tent and taken one of his shirts. "Here," Mulan helped him into it when she returned. "I borrowed this from you during training."

Shang chuckled seeing his crimson shirt with the gold dragon emblem on it. "I wondered where that went." He muttered letting Mulan help him. Then, not wishing for her to do everything, he set to the task of closing the black knots that would fasten the shirt to his body. "So, you're the one who stole it?" He asked, teasing her lightly. She smirked at him.

"You're going to call me a thief now, even after I helped you?" Mulan teased back. She reached out to him, took his hands, and pulled him to his feet once more. In a few hours she was going to rouse Phillip to take the next watch, but now, she was going to the let the prince sleep with his princes. Instead, Mulan led Shang to where her bed role was placed next to the fire. "Here, rest, and sleep. I'll wake you in the morning." Mulan said turning to leave him when is hand closed around her wrist.

"Stay with me, just a little while." Shang urged. She looked at him, consenting to his requesting. Slowly he sat on the bed role, falling back to rest against the saddle as more aches and pains he hadn't been aware of called his attention. Until his eyes closed he gazed upon Mulan, the warrior he had trained under the assumption she had been a man, and now he could see the woman who had risked all to protect her father. "I'm glad I found you," He mumbled before falling into sleep.

Once Mulan was sure Shang was held deep in sleep, she reached out to him and brushed aside a few stray strand of his hair so she could lightly caress his cheek. "Oh, Shang, what happened to you?" Mulan asked unable to get the jagged scars on his chest out of her mind. It made her wonder just how many more his body had since he set out to find her. Before she thought better of it, Mulan leaned over him, and placed a gentle kiss to his forehead. Then she sat back and resumed her watch while she held Shang's hand.


End file.
